Where the Wind Blows

Last Sunday we had a really big windstorm blow through here in the middle of the night.  It woke both Andrew and I up a couple of times because the wind was so strong.  At about 2am we heard this horrible cracking/crashing sound and our whole house shook!  I jumped out of bed and Andrew was laying there saying, “What is going on?”  haha  Well we turned on our outside light and one of the big pine trees in our front yard had fallen onto our house!!  All we could see out of our porch were branches and more branches.
That morning we walked outside and saw exactly what had happened and what damage had been done to our house.


We were lucky that it didn’t crush our house.  I think what saved our house was the tip of this tree was resting on the branch of the tree on the other side of our house. 


Luckily the only damage that was done to the roof was it put a small dent above the door, bent some of the metal roofing, cracked some of the wood structure on the porch, and ripped off the rain gutter. 
After I got off work that day Andrew and I got to work cutting and clearing the tree from off our house.  It took trips to the dump with a trailer full and the bed of the truck full of limbs and branches.  We kept the trunk for firewood next winter (blessing in disguise haha now we don’t have to go cut any in the mountains somewhere, even though that is fun to do).



Anywho, we got it all cleaned up and I am just praying that another wind storm doesn’t blow through because there are three other pine trees in front of our house…even though the biggest one fell on our house.  It’s always an adventure living out here that’s for sure. 

Bye Bye Wallpaper

 

Both bathrooms in our house had this…unique wallpaper when we moved into the house.  I have been wanting to paint the bathrooms since we moved in, but the idea of scraping wallpaper off the walls didn’t sound that exciting to me.  But I am here to tell you that we finally did it! 

So the first bathroom we attacked had some wallpaper with horse shoes and stars on them…it wasn’t as bad as the wallpaper in our bathroom (I have pictures of that beauty later on)…but it was starting to peel off and didn’t look good at all.  Here are the after pictures (painting and everything done).

Here is our bathroom before….isn’t that wallpaper just amazing?!!  I mean who wouldn’t want this in their house haha

I’m sorry but those Indians on that wallpaper really freaked me out.  It was unbelievably hard to spot spiders on this wallpaper until they were right up next to you.

Bye Bye wallpaper! 

Here is an after picture.  I am so happy with the way it turned out!  I can’t believe we waited this long to get rid of the wallpaper.

Monterey Bay 2013

 

The day after the Fourth of the July we drove to Monterey, California for our family’s beach trip!! I absolutely love coming here.  I looked forward to it every year…and this time Andrew was able to come!! 

When we first got to the beach we unpacked and ran down to the beach to fly a kite Andrew bought.  This kite was actually pretty fun to fly.  It had these two bands that go around your wrist with strings attached to the kite and you would fly it that way.  Chris and Brandon brought a rugby ball (of course) so we passed that around for a little bit too.

Brandon flying the kite

It took a little while to get the hang of flying that kite so there was a lot of this going on.

Andrew flying the kite (I had the wrong lens on the camera, so I had to run halfway down the beach to get him and the kite in the picture..my bad)

Rugby time!

We tried to get a picture looking like the kite was taking Brandon away and we were trying to pull him back…this was the best one haha didn’t turn out so well. 

One night we were all upstairs looking out the windows when this HUGE flock of birds came by.  I mean there were thousands and thousands of birds (this picture doesn’t do it justice).  They just kept flying by.  It was a constant sea of birds for half an hour or more!  They have been following a big school of fish or something.  Too bad the whales didn’t join in. 

All the guys did the annual surfing/boarding one day when it was warmer and the waves were good…and after I beat them all in pool tee hee. 

 

SHARK!!…just kidding…but some dolphins did pop up a little bit after they were done boarding in the same spot where they were!

We spent one day in Carmel (love this place!) and ate at the delicious Dametra’s café.  The cook even came out and sang to everyone in the café.  We went to the beach in Carmel too, and it was so nice!  The sand was super white and so warm!  And we saw a naked lady changing right on the beach in front of everyone. That same day on the road back to the beach house we saw a guy changing by his car…butt naked…gotta love those California Free Spirits!!

  Of course we had to play Tennis while we were there!  It wouldn’t be complete without Tennis!! 

I’d have to say our Tennis skills are getting better…slowly : )

Brandon, my dad, and Andrew went deep sea fishing one day and came back with a TON of fish!  This fish was favorite haha look at it’s eyes popping out!

We went to the Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz one afternoon and it is totally worth the $5 to get in.  It is this place where the gravity is messed up in a small area.  There are lots of theories why, but none have been proven yet.  Andrew and my dad think it’s a hoax, but whether it is or not it is really fun!

You think you are standing straight up but really you are standing at like a 20 degree angle!  CRAZY!! 

One night we went to the Santa Cruz boardwalk because you can get an all ride pass for $13 if you bring a pop can!  I think we rode the Giant Dipper like seven times!  So fun!

I could live here!!

But eventually our week was up and we had to head back home…but I do love it here too!  Who could ever get sick of this view from their front porch?

And there have been these two fawns and their mom hanging around the pond by our house.

I went to the beach another time this year and we went whale watching.  We saw some pacific white-sided dolphins that played around our boat and some humpback whales!

It’s not even summer yet!

 

I thought I’d catch up on a few things that have happened around here since Christmas. 

First off, now that the weather has warmed up a little I have been hearing frogs again coming from the drains in my house (blah!).  I am pretty sure they are going to come back with a vengeance since I poured bleach down the drains all winter long trying to kill them off. 

I was also able to go to Monterey Bay, California with my parents, my grandparents, and my brother Brandon for Spring Break.  It was so nice to get away and be in civilization for awhile.  We went to Carmel by the Sea which we haven’t really ever done, but we loved it and I am sure we will be going back there next time we visit. 

We went to the wharf and there was this old piano there (I think it was promoting some musical they had going on) but it seemed all lonely and it was just calling my name so I played a song on the wharf!  I was pretty cool, people even stopped to listen haha.

My cute brother and I at the wharf (yes he is eleven years younger than me and he is taller than me…one of life’s injustices).

Meanwhile back on the Ranch Andrew has been working hard (he wasn’t able to go to the beach with us).  He has been trying to up the fish population and track the sage grouse…but in his spare time we’ve found some fun things to do. 

We went fishing…

  I would just like to point out how much bigger my fish is than his (also look at the look of disappointment on his face…poor guy)

Alright…Alright…he did eventually catch a huge fish (and as much as I hate to say it I think it was bigger than mine).

We also found a goose nest on top of a haystack. 

During the winter we went shed hunting

 

Poor Andrew he just can’t win haha

Anyways…We’ve been having a great time and can’t wait to see what other fun things we can do once Summer hits and these crazy strong winds stop blowing all the time!!

Christmas Tree and Log Bed

 

We bought a Christmas Tree permit this year, so Sunday after church we drove up into Malheur National Forest and cut down a Christmas Tree!!  It started to snow a little bit when we left church, but when we finally got to the place we found our tree at there was about three inches on the ground of snow!  It was so much fun.  I think cutting down our own tree will become a tradition from now on.

Andrew carrying the tree back to the truck. 

It was so quiet and peaceful in the forest I didn’t want to leave.  It was beautiful with freshly fallen snow too! 

Andrew has also been working on making us a log bed!!  His friend Eric knows how to make them and he showed Andrew how.  He and his wife also went with us to cut down the logs in the Uintas in the summer.  Here is the finished product!!

I absolutely LOVE it!!!  He worked so hard on it and did a great job!